Seeing Beyond the Stigma: Online Dating in 2011

This is a sponsored article provided by DatingAgency.com. All photos used were provided courtesy of Photostock and you can get more images like this from them here.

I was living as a single parent for about four-and-a-half years, and if I had a dollar for every time someone suggested I tried dating online, I’d have saved a fortune for diapers. But for many years I refused to stoop to what I saw as a strange, creepy practice. I didn’t fancy becoming one of those people who trawls the web looking for love—I didn’t think I was that kind of person.

Now that I am happily shacked up with the love of my life, I look back and only wish I had turned to dating on the web sooner. Every minute I spend with my man is a gift, and I can’t believe I denied myself the opportunity to meet him because I was too proud and stubborn to even give dating online a try.

To be honest, I had beena big downer on the whole idea of dating for parents. Since the father of my little girl left me, I had resigned myself to a life in which the two of us would get by without a man in our lives. I was determined to make it work, and I wasn’t going to waste my precious time hanging around in bars waiting for some charmer to come along and hurt us again.

When my friends suggested I set up a profile on websites that specialized in dating for parents, I was skeptical to say the very least. The image I had in my head of people who use online dating websites was one of lonely recluses who weren’t really into socializing—not the kind of people I would really want to go on dates with.

How wrong I was. It took a long, long time before I finally overcame my snobbery and gave online dating a shot. What a shock I got when I discovered a number of sites offering networks of wonderful people in similar positions to myself, all eager to chat in bustling chat rooms and meet up at times that would work around childcare commitments.

It took me less than six weeks to meet Mr. Right through online dating for parents, and because he’s a parent, too, we immediately had something in common to build on. The lesson I’ve learned for the future is not to knock it ’til you’ve tried it—especially when it comes to the wonders of new technology!

Have you pre-judged online dating before you tried it? We’d love to hear your success stories. We know they’re out there!